BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Sonnets for Albert

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Families & Relationships

BBC Radio 4 - Sonnets for Albert

The poet Anthony Joseph reflects on fatherhood, in his own work and that of fellow artists

The poet Anthony Joseph reflects on fatherhood, in his own work and that of fellow artists.

The poet Anthony Joseph has been writing a new collection that addresses a key relationship in his life. 

His father, Albert was many things - a sharp dresser, an orator, a builder but he was only an intermittent figure in Anthony's childhood. And it is this absence which made him powerfully present in Joseph's imagination.

Anthony reveals some of his writing process and his form of 'calypso sonnet', a politically invested line length that, he says, "enforces a melodic rhythm which reminds me of my father" and favours a decidedly Afro-Caribbean approach. 

In this programme, Anthony explores ideas around fatherhood, masculinity, absence and loss, as he talks to other artists whose art has become a space for interrogating the memory of their father.  

We hear from fellow poet Raymond Antrobus, the singer Gregory Porter and the Trinidadian film-maker Mariel Brown.  

(Including audio material from 'Unfinished Sentences', 2019 - courtesy of Mariel Brown.)

Produced by Hannah Dean with additional production from Zakia Sewell
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Sonnets for Albert

Genres

Formats

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4